Finish One Thing At A Time To Succeed

This week has proven quite interesting in all areas of my work.  Like most entrepreneurs, I am a little ADD or ADHD or something like that.  My mind is always spinning at all hours of the day and night.  I got up at 3am this morning with ideas just pouring out.

I met two different business owners who had the exact same problem.  They had major projects somewhere between 70 and 80% complete and we already looking to the next project.  The problem was they weren't finishing the ones they already started.  Do you know anyone who has trouble finishing a project?

If this is you or someone you know, you might like to know why this happens.  To begin with we start projects for a couple of reasons.  One of them is to prove we can do it.  The problem here is that you don't actually need to finish the project to see that you can.  When this happens, you get bored, realizing that there is no question that you can finish, and you start looking elsewhere.

The problem I have with this is that you can't win until you finish.  This is true in life, racing and projects.  Imagine if you got on my flight to Dallas and we went 80% of the way and got on the PA and said "OK folks, you have seen that we made it this far, and we are sure you all believe we can make it the rest of the way so we are stopping in Austin so we can go do something else."  Crazy right?  And yet we do it every day.

Following through on a project or task until it is completed isn't easy. Anyone can enter the race, and many can run a lot of laps.  Only a few will finish, and only one will win.  

When these business owners come to me short on patience, money, time and focus while looking at the next project, it is easy to see why they are right where they are.

Imagine if I were a real estate investor and I kept buying property.  First I bought a condo, cleaned it up, got it ready to rent, and said "See, I can be a condo landlord" without ever actually renting it.  Then I went and bought a house, cleaned it up, got it ready to flip and said "See I can flip a house" without ever selling it.  I would go broke doing this, and this is exactly what I see business owner after business owner do over and over.

I must admit, I have done it too.

So what is the solution?  The simple solution is not to start a new project until the old project is truly complete.  Simple yes, obvious yes, easy, no.  If it were easy, everyone would do it.  

One of the keys to success is knowing what you want to do before you start, and then finishing it before you start something else.  I can't fly a jet while I am still racing a car.  Why do we try to start one business when the first one still isn't complete?

If you start, commit to finishing before moving on, and you will see your success sooner than you think possible.